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Feb 27, 2014

BtoB Brings Back The Fun With "Beep Beep"

Before you say anything, no this is not the SNSD song with the same name, it's BtoB's newest title track that also just happenes to be called Beep Beep. Well, the Korean title is Ddwi Ddwi Bbang Bbang, but they have thankfully provided us with a much easier English title.
The concept this time being cars, I wondered how this would relate to a song and make sense doing it. The video, is of course completely smacked with cars and car related items, as well as the appropriate honking in the choreography.

My first though for this video- that's a lot of flashing items. And a lot of cars. And an early product placement? Well this is going places. Bleach blonde Ilhoon announces that Btob is the place to be at while Sungjae and Eunkwang tell him to get out of their way and later proceed to drive away without him.
The video mainly consists of the boys singing and dancing in flashy sets with plenty of props, driving various cars and throwing a big dance party while at it. It really looks like most of the video was filmed in just one or two settings, and none of them looked particularly interesting either.
The song is about getting over a heartbreak by going for a soothing drive with the car, basically, and is pretty much the only thing that has any connection to the overwhelming car theme. It's a standard Brave Brothers song, and it's extremely basic in terms of instrumental layering and complexity. The boys vocals do sound fantastic though, but that's not thanks to the song, it's because they have some fantastic vocalists.
Even the rapping sounds great, and I usually think Minhyuk is the weaker out of the two rappers but he really killed it this time.

If I were to go into some more depthy stuff about this, it would be pretty hard because there aren't really any. There's no real plot to dig into, but it's entertaining enough to watch the boys' antics and strange facial expressions. I really loved Eunkwang and Peniel's bickering on the stairs that immediately stops when the song's hook and point dance comes on, just so they can do it along with the music in full serious mode.
At one point there are some ladies in skimpy outifts dancing in the background, as previously seen in one of the teaser videos, but I don't see any reason at all for having them there really. There's no other female featuring to play a love interest, which is a shame because I feel that it may have been more interesting to watch them act against someone else instead of just driving in their cars.

When the final breakdown in the song comes around, the boys stand around a grand piano all suited up as if they were doing a ballad song. I get that is fits the music at that point in the song, but it just throws you off completely because this has been, up til then, a really fun, energetic video. If this sequence is for comedic purposes, like a parody of some sort, then fine, but otherwise it's a bit strange.

The video ends on a high, with a huge dance party happening (among all the wheel props) as the boys get to let loose and be their crazy selves. They drive around in their mini cars, fight with each other, do strange dance moves and execute some of their own choreography too.

My initial though right after watching this video was that it felt cheap. Like, I felt that their agency Cube had once again given them the short end of the stick. Thriller last year was so gimmicky, and it felt so awkward and forced and that video did no justice to them at all. So with that in mind, I am happy that this at least is a concept that fits them, but the video was very underwhelming. The video was not made on a big budget, that's for sure, and it really did nothing in trying to promote them or enhance their musical abilities (the song choice may have had a part in that too). However, I am happy for them to do something fun and playful, something that embodies them as a group. BtoB is by far one of the craziest boy groups out there (in the best possible way, of course), they have so many funny, strange and entertaining members that could not care less about sustaining any type of image. They are very amusing indeed, so it's nice to see them act it out a bit in this video. In fact, that's probably the best thing about this video.

I mean, I've seen worse videos, but this was not what I would have wanted from this group. They seriously have so much potential, but are given material that do not help them grow in any way. This video has no identity, no personality. This video could have been done by other, newer rookies too, and for an agency that has hit groups in 4minute, Beast and A Pink, it seems like much less effort is put on this group. I really wanted them to have their breakout song this year, but so far it seems like this is not it, it's just too generic. The boys really do their best though, and I don't blame them but rather their management team who just can't get things right.

Also, the short over leggings trend needs to stop happening, like instantly. Same goes with Ilhoon's hair.